Product Info

We are proud to have assembled a distinguished and talented group of librarians and academics whose guidance and advice was essential to the development of The African American Experience. They will continue to assist us with their aid and expertise, ensuring that AAE will remain a current, vibrant, and essential database for many years to come.

Andrew P. Jackson (Sekou Molefi Baako) has been executive director of Queens Library’s Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center for the past twenty-seven years. He is currently serving as Training, Development, and Operations Consultant to the Roosevelt Public Library. A graduate of City University of New York’s York College and Queens College’s Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, with a Master of Library Science, he is also a published author and essayist, lecturer, and adjunct professor.

An "activist librarian," Andrew was given his African names in 1994 as a result of his dedication to community building and his passion to empower our youth. He regularly participates in career days and speaks to students on Africana history and culture, encourages reading and the use of libraries for empowerment, and to consider librarianship as a fulfilling career.

The immediate past president of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (2004-2006), Andrew also serves his community as a member of the Board of Directors of Queens Public Television and Chair of the Board of Trustees at The Renaissance Charter School. He is an advisory board member of the Lewis H. Latimer House; the Louis Armstrong House and Archives; the Board for the Education for the People of African Ancestry; a founding member of Borough President’s Queens General Assembly and Poet Laureate Selection Committee; serves as MC for the Annual York College Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration; and is a ten-year member and past chair of the Queens Borough President’s African American Heritage Month Planning Committee.

Em Claire Knowles is Assistant Dean for Student Administrative Services at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College. Prior to joining Simmons, she served as a librarian in public services and collection development, with selection responsibilities in ethnic studies at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Knowles is currently an elected member of the council of the American Library Association, board member of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, secretary of the Massachusetts Black Librarians Network, and chair of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.

Knowles participated in the creation of the Racial and Ethnic Diversity section of the Association of College and Research Libraries. She has contributed to the literature in the area of user instruction, the recruitment of the underrepresented to the LIS profession, and diversity and employment trends. She holds a master’s of library science from University of California, Berkeley; MPA from California State University-Sacramento; and DA from Simmons College.

James R. Allen teaches history and politics at the College of New Rochelle’s Brooklyn campus. Professor Allen has previously taught Africana Studies at York College of the City University and the State University of New York at Old Westbury, Rutgers, and Seton Hall universities, as well as at the Black Studies Program at Trenton (NJ) State Prison. He completed his graduate studies at the New School for Social Research.

ayo dayo is a manager in the Information Support Services Division of the Prince William (VA) Public Library System. She holds an MLS in Library Science from The University of Texas at Austin and MA in Journalism from The University of Iowa. She has worked in libraries for the last twenty-three years. She is Chair of the BCALA Distinguished Service Awards Committee, and from 1998 to 1999 served a member of ALA’s Notable Children’s Committee; she has served as a member of the Coretta Scott King Committee, served a member of the Capitol Choices Noteworthy Book for Childrens committee, reviews books for School Library Journal, and has participated in the planning of the last five BCALA National Conferences.

Tiffeni J. Fontno is a Librarian at Case Western Reserve University. Ms. Fontno is an active member of Black Caucus of the American Library Association and the African American Studies Librarian Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Claudia Hill is Product Manager for Web and Database Applications, Administrative Computing, Harvard University. She has co-written an upcoming article for Cataloging & Classification Quarterly on the importance of Spanish-language terms in English-language bibliographic records. Formerly the Art and Architecture Cataloger for Columbia University’s Avery Library, she also served as Editor of conservation and preservation terminology at the J. Paul Getty Trust’s Art & Architecture Thesaurus. Documentation of African-American and Caribbean history and culture is a life-long pursuit.

Kenya Johnson is Head of Adult Services at Pasadena (TX) Public Library. Previously, she was Technical Services Librarian at University of Texas Psychiatry Library, and Children’s Librarian and Assistant Manager at Houston Public Library. She received her MILS from University of Southern Mississippi, and is a member of Texas Library Association and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

Linda Jolivet is currently Reference Librarian for Oakland (CA) Public Library, and has worked for the Oakland Library system for nearly eleven years in various positions, including Branch Manager of two separate branches. She received her MLIS from the University of California, Berkeley. She was selected as a post-graduate intern for Stanford University Libraries in 1989. She also has served as the Head of the Curriculum and Instructional Educational Media Center at Kentucky State University’s Blazer Library, and Media Librarian for St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California. Ms. Jolivet served as the Reference Librarian for the African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO, part of Oakland Public Library), and also was the first professional Librarian/Curator for the East Bay Negro Historical Society (the parent organization to AAMLO).

Janis Jordan has served on the Editorial Board of the College and Research Library News, a monthly publication of the American Library Association, for which she created the "Fast Facts" column. Additionally, Dr. Jordan has been a contributor to other publications, including Reference and User Services Quarterly (RUSQ).

Kwando M Kinshasa is Associate Professor and Chairman of the African American Studies Department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. Professor Kinshasa received his doctorate degree in sociology from New York University, and is author of numerous books and articles pertaining to migration, social violence, and criminal justice. He was an adviser on a number of scholarly projects, including the production of an academy award documentary film, Scottsboro, An American Tragedy. He is author of The African American Chronology (2006), which provided the content for AAE’s Timeline feature.

Rose M. Powell is Cataloger and System Administrator at Southern University at Shreveport, Louisiana. She earned her MLIS from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.

Fath Davis Ruffins is Curator of African American History and Culture at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. She has been affiliated with NMAH, Smithsonian Institution for twenty-five years, previously as Historian and Head of the Collection of Advertising History, Archives Center. She performed her undergraduate and graduate studies at Radcliffe College and Harvard University.

Allison Sutton is Assistant Professor of Library Administration and serves as the Psychology and Social Work Subject Specialist in the Education & Social Science Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is involved in comprehensive collection management activities, provision of reference assistance, bibliographic instruction, and individual research consultations. Ms. Sutton also is an active member of the American Library Association with a heavy focus on recruitment and retention issues and diversification of the LIS profession. Additionally, she is engaged in researching and publishing previously undocumented Twentieth Century historical contributions and initiatives by and for African Americans in the library and information science field.